Departmental Information Officers

Oliver Heald: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport how many full-time equivalent press officers (a) are employed by and (b) work for his Department.

Chris Mole: The number of full-time equivalent staff (FTE) employed on press officer activities on the 1 April 2009 by the Department for Transport both directly and, where identifiable, indirectly is set out in the following table.
	
		
			  Staff (FTE) employed on press officer activities 
			   DFT employees  Other workers( 1) 
			 DFT(C) 13 Nil 
			 DSA 26 0 
			 DVLA 5 Nil 
			 GCDA Nil Nil 
			 HA 11 3 
			 MCA 2 Nil 
			 VCA Nil Nil 
			 VOSA 1 1 
			 (1) Other workers include temporary employment agency staff. (2) DSA figure includes fixed term employment 
		
	
	The staff resource deployed by the Central Office of Information in providing their regional News and PR services to parts of the Department can be provided only at disproportionate cost.
	The Highways Agency (HA) has seven regional press officers to support its new Traffic Officer service and seven regional control centres. These press officers are employed to raise awareness of the Traffic Officers and the agency's role as network operator for England's motorways and major A roads.